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. 1993 Apr;67(4):767–772. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1993.139

Prognostic significance of cathepsin-D in patients with breast cancer.

J H Winstanley 1, S J Leinster 1, T G Cooke 1, B R Westley 1, A M Platt-Higgins 1, P S Rudland 1
PMCID: PMC1968341  PMID: 8471433

Abstract

The expression of the protease cathepsin-D has been evaluated using an immunohistochemical technique with a polyclonal antibody in paraffin-embedded tissue from 359 patients treated between the years 1975-1981 for Stage I and II breast cancer. One hundred and twenty seven patients (35%) have strongly positive, granular staining, 138 (38%) are intermediately stained in the cytoplasm, and in 94 (26%) no staining is observed. There is a strong positive association between expression of cathepsin-D and the presence of tumour in axillary lymph nodes (P < 0.006). Expression of the protease is associated with significantly poorer survival of patients in univariate analysis (P = 0.025); however, this is not independent of other tumour variables.

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Selected References

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